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Hierarchical clustering with OWA-based linkages, the Lance-Williams formula, and dendrogram inversions (2303.05683v2)
Published 10 Mar 2023 in stat.ML and cs.LG
Abstract: Agglomerative hierarchical clustering based on Ordered Weighted Averaging (OWA) operators not only generalises the single, complete, and average linkages, but also includes intercluster distances based on a few nearest or farthest neighbours, trimmed and winsorised means of pairwise point similarities, amongst many others. We explore the relationships between the famous Lance-Williams update formula and the extended OWA-based linkages with weights generated via infinite coefficient sequences. Furthermore, we provide some conditions for the weight generators to guarantee the resulting dendrograms to be free from unaesthetic inversions.